Romancing The Chocolate: Cookies: Unusual Tabasco Chocolate Cherry

30 January 2012

Cookies: Unusual Tabasco Chocolate Cherry

The Bing cherry owes its development to the Ch...

From Denny: Enjoy a little pepper heat with your chocolate? Then these unusual cookies from the Tabasco hot sauce company are for you.

Chocolate and cherries are another winning combination enjoyed during the Valentine's Day celebration season. Tabasco just decided to kick it up a notch.

This recipe calls for making huge cookies that are shaped into football ovals and then decorated with icing to resemble the pigskin laces. Instead you can shape them into hearts, piping icing with a heart inside a heart for decoration.

Kickin’ Chocolate-Cherry Cookies

From: Tabasco

Makes: about 15 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine (2 sticks), softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1-1/2 tsps. hot pepper sauce
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup dried cherries or cranberries, finely chopped, optional
2-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 egg white

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In mixer at medium speed, cream butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs, hot pepper sauce and vanilla; beat well. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt; add to butter mixture with cherries. Beat until well blended and smooth. Cover dough with plastic wrap in same bowl, or place in self-sealing plastic bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. Drop 1/4 cupfuls of dough onto ungreased large cookie sheets, about 3 inches apart; shape into balls. Flatten balls to 1/2-inch thickness; gently shape into ovals to resemble footballs, about 4 inches long. Repeat with remaining dough.

3. Bake cookies about 12 minutes or until set. Cool 2 minutes; carefully remove to wire racks to cool completely.

4. Beat confectioners’ sugar and egg white in bowl until just stiff. Place icing in small Ziploc back (snip off end of bag) or in small pastry bag with small writing tip. Pipe lines and laces on cookies to resemble footballs. Let dry completely, at least 30 minutes.

Nutritional analysis per serving: 380 calories, 4 grams protein, 63 grams carbohydrates, 13 grams fat, 55 milligrams cholesterol and 190 milligrams sodium.